destinies are to be united to
theirs, until you cannot help feeling a strong interest in them. Shut
your eyes, for a day or two, to their faults, if possible, and take an
interest in all their pleasures and pursuits, that the first attitude,
in which you exhibit yourself before them, may be one, which shall
allure, not repel.

2. In endeavoring to correct the faults of your pupils, do not, as many
teachers do, seize only upon _those particular cases_ of transgression,
which may happen to come under your notice. These individual instances
are very few, probably, compared with the whole number of faults,
against which you ought to exert an influence. And though you perhaps
ought not to neglect those, which may accidentally come under your
notice, yet the observing and punishing such cases, is a very small part
of your duty.

You accidentally hear, I will suppose, as you are walking home from
school, two of your boys in earnest conversation, and one of them uses
profane language. Now, the course to be pursued in such a case, is most
evidently, not to call the boy to you, the next day, and punish him,
and there let the matter rest. This would perhaps be better than
nothing. But the chief impression which it would make upon the
individual, and upon the other scholars, would be, "I must take care how
I _let the master hear me_ use such language again." A wise teacher, who
takes enlarged and extended views of his duty, in regard to the moral
progress of his pupils, would act very differently. He would look at the
whole subject. "Does this fault," he would say to himself, "prevail
among my pupils? If so, how extensively?" It is comparatively of little
consequence to punish the particular transgression. The great point is,
to devise some plan to reach the whole evil, and to correct it, if
possible.

In one case, where such a circumstance occurred, the teacher managed it
most successfully, in the following way.

He said nothing to the boy, and in fact, the boy did not know that he
was overheard. He allowed a day or two to elapse, so that the
conversation might be forgotten, and then took an opportunity, one day,
after school, when all things had gone on pleasantly, and the school was
about to be closed, to bring forward the whole subject. He told the boys
that he had something to say to them, after they had laid by their
books, and were ready to go. The desks were soon closed, and every face
in the room was turned towards t